Return  this  book  on  or  before  the 
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C:  |GV- 


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f—  i  ‘.J  J  ;  J 

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1.161  —  1 1 4 1 


!  WOMAN’S  DUTY  TO  NOTE. 


SPEECH  BY 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER 


AT  THE  ELEVENTH  NATIONAL 


WOMAN’S  RIGHTS  CONVENTION, 


HELD  IN 


NEW  YORK,  MAY  10,  186a 


NEW  YORK: 

Office  of  “ THE  REVOLUTION ” 


No.  37  PARK  ROW,  (ROOM  20). 
1868. 


y 


vreAwcss,, 


ROTHES 


ERSAL  CLOTHES  WRINGER.’ 


the 

Cannot  be  Surpassed  or  equalled 
by  any  other  Wringer  for  durabil¬ 
ity,  till  the  expiration  of  the  patent 
for  the  “  COG  WHEEL  REGU¬ 
LATOR”  or  ‘‘STOP -GEAR.” 
No  other  Wringer  is  licensed  under 
this  Patent.  It  being  now  univer¬ 
sally  conceded  that  Cogs  are  neces¬ 
sary  to  prevent  the  Rolls  from  be¬ 
ing  broken  or  torn  loose,  many  at¬ 
tempts  have  been  made  to  get  a 
Cog  -  Wheel  arrangement  which 
shall  equal  the  UNIVERSAL, 
and  yet  avoid  the  “Stop-Gear” 
patent,  but  without  success. 

Any  Cog-Wheel  Wringer  having 
Cogs,  whether  at  one  or  both  ends 
of  the  roll,  which  can  play  apart  and  fly  out  of  gear  when  a  large  article  is  passing 
through,  is  COMPARATIVELY  WORTHLESS,  as  the  Cogs  are  then  of  no  aid  when 
most  needed ,  and  an  arrangement  of  Cog-Wheels  in  fixed  bearings,  the  upper  one  acting 
on  a  roll  in  movable  bearings,  must  prove  a  mechanical  failure  in  use,  and  we  warn  all; 
persons  not  to  purchase  such  Wringers  as  an  “improvement  on  the  Universal,”  which 
they  are  sometimes  represented  to  be  by  the  salesmen. 


The  “Universal  Clothes  Wringer”  has  been  in  use  in  my  family  for  over  five 
r years.  It  certainly  saves  much  hard  work.  It  saves  clothes  also ,  for  garments  that  are 
getting  old  and  worn  are  never  cracked  or  torn  by  it,  as  they  are  sure  to  be  when  wrung, 
by  hand.  I  therefore  eheerfully  recommend  it  as  a  valuable  family  assistant. 

Newark,  N.  J.,  June,  1807.  LUCY  STONE.l 

Many  who  sell  the  UNIVERSAL  WRINGER  keep  also  the 

DOTY 

WASHING-  MACHINE, 

which,  though  but  recently  introduced,  is  really 
as  great  a  LABOR  and  (3LOTHE8  SAVER 
as  the  Wringer,  and  is  destined  to  win  public 
favor  and  patronage  everywhere. 

It  washes  perfectly ,  without  wearing  or  rub¬ 
bing  the  clothes  at  all. 

Those  keeping  the  Wringer  for  sale,  will  or¬ 
der  the  Washer  for  customers,  if  they  have  not 
got  a  supply  on  hand.  On  receipt  of  the  Re¬ 
tail  price,  from  places  where  no  one  is  selling, 
we  will  send  either  or  both  machines  from  New 
York. 

Prices— Family  Washer,  $14.  No.  IK  Wrin¬ 
ger,  $10.  No.  2  Wringer,  $8  £0. 

A  supply  of  the  Wringers  and  Washers  Is 
always  kept  on  hand  in  Chicago,  Cincinnati, 

Cleveland,  Janesvilleand  St.  Louis,  boxed  ready 
^r  shipment,  at  about  New  York  prices. 

-<arge  profits  are  made  selling  these  machines.  Exclusive  right  of  sale  given,  with  no 

large  for  the  patent  right. 

Circulars,  giving  Wholesale  and  Retail  prices,  sent  free. 

R.  C.  BROWNING,  General  Agent, 

Bite  Merchant’s  Hotel.)  No.  32  Courtlandt  Strbbt,  New  York. 


1  hwi }  -4-  t?  lOSel/CLS 


33  e>w 


WOMAN’S  DUTY  TO  VOTE. 


SPEECH  BY 

HEYBY  WABD  BEECHEB, 

AT  TEE  ELEVENTH  NATIONAL 

WOMANS  RIGHT'S  CONVENTION, 

HELD  IN 

NEW  YOBK,  MAY  10,  I860. 


rl 


93 


It  maybe  asked  why,  at  such  a  time  as  this,  when  the  at¬ 
tention  of  the  whole  nation  is  concentrated  upon  the  recon¬ 
struction  of  our  States,  we  should  intrude  a  new  and  ad¬ 
vanced  question.  I  have  been  asked,  “  Why  not  wait  for  the 
settlement  of  the  question  that  now  fills  the  minds  of  men  ? 
Why  divert  and  distract  their  thoughts  ?  ”  I  answer,  Be¬ 
cause  the  question  is  one  and  the  same.  We  are  not  now- 
discussing  merely  the  question  of  the  vote  for  the  African, 
or  of  his  status  as  a  new-born  citizen.  That  is  a  fact  which 
compels  us  to  discuss  the  whole  underlying  question  of  gov¬ 
ernment.  That  is  the  case  in  court.  But  when  the  judge 
shall  have  given  his  decision,  that  decision  will  cover  the 
whole  question  of  civil  society,  and  the  relations  of  every 
individual  in  it  as  a  factor,  an  agent,  an  actor. 

Now,  if  you  look  back,  you  shall  see  that  the  history  of 
the  development  of  man  for  the  last  thousand  years — before 
that,  but  more  obviously  and  noticeably  since — has  been 
collection  for  the  sake  of  distribution.  In  order  to  guard 
interest  against  brute  force,  it  was  needful  that  guilds,  and 
franchises,  and  fraternities,  and  professions  should  be  es- 


* 

I 


C4, 


2 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


tablished.  Just  as  when  we  light  a  candle  in  flaring  winds 
we  take  every  precaution,  not  to  hide  the  light,  but  to  pro¬ 
tect  it  until  it  has  strength  to  burn  without  protection,  and 
then  let  it  stand  to  give  light  to  all  that  are  in  the  house,  so 
it  was  necessary  tor  law  to  protect  itself.  It  was  needful  for 
medicine,  too,  as  it  were,  to  intrench  itself  and  ward  off  em- 
pyrics.  It  was  needful  for  various  mechanical  trades  to  de¬ 
fend  themselves.  And  it  has  been  said  that  these  were  the  bul¬ 
warks  and  the  very  advanced  guards  of  popular  democratic 
liberty.  But  so  soon  as,  by  guilds,  and  franchises,  and  fra¬ 
ternities,  and  professions,  a  principle  had  become  so  strong 
that  it  needed  no  longer  to  be  protected,  it  then  had  worn 
out  its  time,  and  become  a  kind  of  aristocracy.  And  in  our 
day  the  great  distributive  tendency  has  set  in.  The  prin¬ 
ciple  of  democracy  is  so  well  established  now  that  learning 
is  not  confined  to  a  learned  class  ;  medicine  is  not  confined 
to  the  medical  profession  ;  law  is  not  confined  to  lawyers  ; 
and  the  ministration  of  the  gospel,  thank  God,  is  not  con¬ 
fined  to  ministers  of  the  gospel.  Everywhere  it  is  becox  ling 
more  and  more  acknowledged  or  apparent  that  the  func¬ 
tions  that  used  to  be  given  to  men  of  professions  are  be¬ 
coming  part  and  parcel  of  the  right  of  every  citizen  who 
shows  himself  capable  of  exercising  those  functions.  It 
needs  now  no  reformation,  no  convention,  to  teach  us  that 
a  man  may  take  the  Word  of  God  in  his  hand,  and  go  down 
into  any  street,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  living 
creature.  Once  it  would  have  required  a  man  to  make  his 
peace  with  a  civil  magistrate  to  do  that ;  for  only  the  hand 
of  ordination  was  supposed  to  give  a  man  the  right  to 
preach.  But  now  that  is  over,  almost  without  discussion. 
It  is  not  now  thought  necessary  for  a  man,  if  he  knows  the 
law,  to  consult  a  lawyer.  A  man  has  a  right  to  be  healthy 
without  a  doctor,  and  to  step  aside,  if  he  pleases,  from  the 
methods  which  ha’ve  been  prescribed  by  the  schools  of 
medicine.  A  mother  is  better  than  many  a  doctor  that  is 
called  to  attend  the  child ;  and  I  think  that  nurse3  will  one 


SPEECH  BY  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 


3 


clay  be  considered  the  best  and  chiefest  of  doctors.  Good 
doctors  already  consider  themselves  as  but  men  standing 
between  officious  friends  and  the  patient  to.  keep  off  medi¬ 
cine.  And  the  time  will  come,  has  come,  when  any  man 
may  enter,  by  the  simple  right  of  capacity  to  do  it,  into  any 
calling,  profession,  or  business  in  life.  There  was  a  time 
when,  in  some  lands,  if  the  father  was  a  cooper,  the  son 
must  be  a  cooper  too.  There  was  a  time  when,  if  a  man 
was  born  in  a  barrel,  he  must  live  in  a  barrel  all  his  life  ! 
There  was  a  time  when  a  man  felt  as  much  bound  to  follow 
the  profession  that  his  father  did,  as  a  man,  being  bom  a 
man,  feels  bound  to  continue  a  man,  or  a  woman,  being 
bora  a  woman,  feels  bound  to  continue  a  woman.  Now 
that  is  changed.  Christian  civilization,  the  progress  of 
democratic  ideas,  is  making  itself  felt  everywhere.  Men 
are  scholars,  without  belonging  to  a  scholastic  class.  Men 
are  practitioners  in  every  one  of  the  profesions,  without 
belonging  to  the  professional  class.  Men  have  a  right  to  be 
statesmen  by  virtue  of  their  citizenship.  There  is  more 
power  to-day  in  one  citizen  of  Massachusetts  than  at  any 
one  time  there  was  in  a  score  of  English  nobles.  These 
changes  are  going  on  by  reason  of  the  working  of  this  grand 
democratic  element.  All  the  interests  of  society  are  ex¬ 
periencing  a  change  ;  and  society  itself,  in  its  structure,  is 
also  experiencing  a  change. 

All  the  world  over,  the  question  to-day  is,  Who  has  a 
right  to  construct  law,  and  to  administer  law  ?  Russia— . 
gelid,  frigid  Russia— cannot  escape  the  question.  Yea,  he 
that  sits  on  the  Russian  throne  has  proved  himself  a  better 
democrat  than  any  of  us  all,  and  is  giving  to-day  more  evi¬ 
dence  of  a  genuine  love  of  God,  and  of  its  partner  emotion, 
love  to  man,  in  enfranchising  thirty  million  serfs,  than 
many  a  proud  democrat  of  America  has  ever  given.  (Ap¬ 
plause.)  And  the  question  of  emancipation  in  Russia  is 
only  the  preface  to  the  next  question,  which  doubtless  he  as 
clearly  as  any  of  us  foresees — namely,  the  question  of 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


4 

citizenship,  and  of  the  rights  and  functions  of  citizenship. 
In  Italy,  the  question  of  who  may  partake  of  government 
has  arisen,  and  there  has  been  an  immense  widening  of 
popular  liberty  there.  Germany,  that  freezes  at  night  and 
thaws  out  by  day  only  enough  to  freeze  up  again  at  night, 
has  also  experienced  as  much  agitation  on  this  subject  as 
the  nature  of  the  case  will  allow.  And  when  all  France,  all 
Italy,  all  Russia,  and  all  Great  Britain  shall  have  rounded 
out  into  perfect  democratic  liberty,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that,  on 
the  North  side  of  the  fence  where  it  freezes  first  and  the  ice 
thaws  out  last,  Germany,  will  herself  be  thawed  out  in  her 
turn,  and  come  into  the  great  circle  of  democratic  nations. 
Strange,  that  the  mother  of  modern  democracy  should  her¬ 
self  be  stricken  with  such  a  palsy  and  with  such  lethargy  ! 
Strange,  that  a  nation  in  which  was  born  and  in  which  has 
inhered  all  the  indomitableness  of  individualism  should  be 
so  long  unable  to  understand  the  secret  of  personal  liberty  ! 
But  all  Europe  to-day  is  being  filled  and  agitated  with  this 
great  question  of  the  right  of  every  man  to  citizenship  ; 
of  the  right  of  every  man  to  make  the  laws  that  are  to  con¬ 
trol  him  ;  and  of  the  right  of  every  man  to  administer  the 
laws  that  are  applicable  to  him.  This  is  the  question  to¬ 
day  in  Great  Britain.  The  question  that  is  being  agitated 
from  the  throne  down  to  the  Birmingham  shop,  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  North  Sea,  to-day,  is  this  :  Shall  more  than 
one  man  in  six  in  Great  Britain  be  allowed  to  vote  ?  There 
is  only  one  in  six  of  the  full-grown  men  in  that  nation  that 
can  vote  to-day.  And  everywhere  we  are  moving  toward 
that  sound,  solid,  final  ground — namely,  that  it  inheres  in 
the  radical  notion  of  manhood  that  every  man  has  a  right 
which  is  not  given  to  him  by  potentate,  nor  by  legislator, 
nor  by  the  consent  of  the  community,  but  which  belongs  to 
liis  structural  idea,  and  is  a  divine  right,  to  make  the  laws 
that  control  him,  and  to  elect  the  magistrates  that  are  to 
administer  those  laws.  It  is  universal. 

And  now,  this  being  the  world-tide  and  tendency,  what 


SPEECH  BY  HENBY  WABD  BEECHEB. 


5 


is  there  in  history,  what  is  there  in  physiology,  what  is  there 
in  experience,  that  shall  say  to  this  tendency,  marking  the 
line  of  sex ;  “  Thus  far  shalt  thou  go,  and  no  farther  ?  ”  I 
roll  the  argument  off  from  my  shoulders,  and  I  challenge 
the  man  that  stands  with  me,  beholding  that  the  world- 
thought  to-day  is  the  emancipation  of  the  citizen’s  power 
and  the  preparation  by  education  of  the  citizen  for  that 
power,  and  objects  to  extending  the  right  of  citizenship  to 
every  human  being,  to  give  me  the  reasons  why.  (Ap¬ 
plause.)  To-day  this  nation  is  exercising  its  conscience  on 
the  subject  of  suffrage  for  the  African.  I  Lave  all  the  time 
favored  that :  not  because  he  was  an  African,  but  because 
he  was  a  man  ;  because  this  right  of  voting,  which  is  the 
symbol  of  everything  else  in  civil  power,  inheres  in  every 
human  being.  But  I  ask  you,  to-day,  “  Is  it  safe  to  bring 
in  a  million  of  black  men  to  vote,  and  not  safe  to  bring  in 
your  mother,  your  wife,  and  your  sister  to  vote  ?  ”  (Ap¬ 
plause.)  This  ought  ye  to  have  done,  and  to  have  done 
quickly,  and  not  to  have  left  the  other  undone.  (Renewed 
applause. ) 

To-day,  politicians  of  every  party,  especially  on  the  eve  of 
an  election,  are  in  favor  of  the  briefest  and  most  expedi¬ 
tious  citizenizing  of  the  Irishmen.  I  have  great  respect  for 
Irishmen — when  they  do  not  attempt  to  carry  on  war  ! 
(Laughter.)  The  Irish  Fenian  movement  is  a  ludicrous 
phenomenon  past  all  laughing  at.  Bombarding  England 
from  the  shores  of  America !  (Great  laughter.)  Paper 
pugnation  1  Oratorical  destroying  !  But  when  wind-work 
is  the  order  of  the  day,  commend  me  to  Irishmen  !  (Re¬ 
newed  laughter.)  And  yet  I  am  in  favor  of  Irishmen  voting. 
Just  so  soon  as  they  give  pledge  that  they  come  to  America, 
in  good  faith,  to  abide  here  as  citizens,  and  forswear  the 
old  allegiance,  aod  take  on  the  new,  I  am  in  favor  of  their 
voting.  TVhy  ?  Because  they  have  learned  our  Constitu¬ 
tion  ?  No ;  but  because  voting  teaches.  The  vote  is  a 
schoolmaster.  They  will  learn  our  laws,  and  learn  our  Con- 


6 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


stitution,  and  learn  our  customs  ten  times  quicker  wnen  the 
responsibility  of  knowing  these  things  is  laid  upon  them, 
than  when  they  are  permitted  to  live  in  carelessness  re¬ 
specting  them.  And  this  nation  is  so  strong  that  it  can 
stand  the  incidental  mischiefs  of  thus  teaching  the  wild 
rabble  that  emigration  throws  on  our  shores  for  our  good 
and  upbuilding.  We  are  wise  enough,  and  we  have  edu¬ 
cational  force  enough,  to  carry  these  ignorant  foreigners 
along  with  us.  We  have  attractions  that  will  draw  them  a 
thousand  times  more  toward  us  than  they  can  draw  us  to¬ 
ward  them. 

And  yet,  while  I  take  this  broad  ground,  that  no  man, 
even  of  the  Democratic  party  (I  make  the  distinction 
because  a  man  may  be  a  democrat  and  be  ashamed  of 
the  party,  and  a  man  may  be  of  the  j>arty  and  not  know  a 
single  principle  of  democracy),  should  be  debarred  from 
voting,  I  ask,  is  an  Irishman  just  landed,  unwashed  and 
uncombed,  more  fit  to  vote  than  a  woman  educated  in  our 
common  schools  ?  Think  of  the  mothers  and  daughters  of 
this  land,  among  whom  are  teachers,  writers,  artists,  and 
speakers.  What  a  throng  could  we  gather  if  we  should 
from  all  the  West  call  our  women  that  as  educators  are 
carrying  civilization  there  !  Thousands  upon  thousands 
there  are  of  women  that  have  gone  forth  from  the  educa¬ 
tional  institutions  of  New  England  to  carry  light  and  know¬ 
ledge  to  other  parts  of  our  land.  Now,  place  this  great 
army  of  refined  and  cultivated  women  on  the  one  side,  and 
on  the  other  side  the  rising  cloud  of  emancipated  Africans, 
and  in  front  of  them  the  great  emigrant  bond  of  the 
Emerald  Isle,  and  is  there  force  enough  in  our  government 
to  make  it  safe  to  give  to  the  African  and  the  Irishman  the 
franchise  ?  There  is.  We  shall  give  it  to  them.  (Ap¬ 
plause.  )  And  will  our  force  alt  fail,  having  done  that  ? 
And  shall  we  take  the  fairest  and  best  part  of  our  society  ; 
those  to  whom  we  owe  it  that  we  ourselves  are  civilized  ; 
our  teachers ;  our  companions  ;  those  to  whom  we  go  for 


SPEECH  BY  HENEY  VAED  BEECHEE. 


7 


counsel  in  trouble  more  than  to  any  others  ;  those  to  whom 
we  trust  everything  that  is  dear  to  ourselves — our  children’s 
welfare,  our  household,  our  property,  our  name  and  reputa¬ 
tion,  and  that  which  is  deeper,  our  inward  life  itself,  that 
no  man  may  mention  to  more  than  one — shall  we  take  them 
and  say,  ‘‘They  are  not,  after  all,  fit  to  vote  where  the 
Irishman  votes,  and  where  the  African  votes  ?  ”  I  am 
scandalized  when  I  hear  men  talk  in  the  way  that  men  do 
talk — men  that  do  not  think. 

If,  therefore,  you  refer  to  the  initial  sentence,  and  ask 
me  why  I  introduce  this  subject  to-day,  when  we  are  already 
engaged  on  the  subject  of  suffrage,  I  say,  This  is  the  great¬ 
est  development  of  the  suffrage  question.  It  is  more  im¬ 
portant  that  woman  should  vote  than  that  the  black  man 
should  vote.  It  is  important  that  he  should  vote,  that  the 
principle  may  be  vindicated,  and  that  humanity  may  be  de¬ 
fended  ;  but  it  is  important  that  woman  should  vote,  not 
for  her  sake.  She  will  derive  benefit  from  voting ;  but  it  is 
not  on  a  selfish  ground  that  I  claim  the  right  of  suffrage  for 
her.  It  is  God’s  growing  and  least  disclosed  idea  of  a  true 
human  society  that  man  and  woman  should  not  be  divorced 
in  political  affairs  any  more  than  they  are  in  religious  and 
social  affairs.  I  claim  that  woman  should  vote  because 
society  will  never  know  its  last  estate  and  time  glory  until 
you  accept  God’s  edict  and  God’s  command — long  raked 
over  and  covered  in  the  dust — until  you  bring  it  out,  and 
lift  it  up,  and  read  this  one  of  God’&  Ten  Commandments, 
written,  if  not  on  stone,  yet  in  the  very  heart  and  structure 
of  mankind,  Let  those  that  God  joined  tog  tlier  not  he  put 
asunder.  (Applau-e.) 

When  men  converse  with  me  on  the  subject  of  suffrage, 
or  the  vote,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  terminology  withdraws 
their  mind  from  the  depth  and  breadth  of  the  case  to  the 
mere  instruments.  Many  of  the  objections  that  are  urged 
against  woman’s  voting  are  objections  against  the  mechani¬ 
cal  and  physical  act  of  suffrage.  It  is  true  that  all  the  forces 


8 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


of  society,  in  tlieir  final  political  deliverance,  must  needs 
be  born  through  the  vote,  in  our  structure  of  government. 
In  England  it  is  not  so.  It  was  one  of  the  things  to  be 
learned  there  that  the  unvoting  population  on  any  question 
in  which  they  are  interested  and  united  are  more  powerful 
than  all  the  voting  population  or  legislation.  The  English 
Parliament,  if  they  believed  to-day  that  every  working  man 
in  Great  Britain  staked  his  life  on  the  issues  of  universal 
suffrage,  would  not  dare  a  month  to  deny  it.  For  when 
a  nation’s  foundations  are  on  a  class  of  men  that  do 
not  vote,  and  its  throne  stands  on  forces  that  are  coiled 
up  and  liable  at  any  time  to  break  forth  to  its  over¬ 
throw,  it  is  a  question  whether  it  is  safe  to  provoke 
the  exertion  of  those  forces  or  not.  With  us,  where 
all  men  vote,  government  is  safe ;  because,  if  a  thing 
is  once  settled  by  a  fair  vote,  we  will  go  to  war  rather  than 
to  give  it  up.  As  when  Lincoln  was  elected,  if  an  election 
is  valid,  it  must  stand.  In  such  a  nation  as  this,  an  election 
is  equivalent  to  a  divine  decree,  and  irreversible.  But  in 
Great  Britain  an  election  means,  not  the  will  of  the  people, 
but  the  will  of  rulers  and  a  favored  class,  and  there  is  always 
under  them  a  great  wronged  class,  that,  if  they  get  stirred 
up  by  the  thought  that  they  are  wronged,  will  burst  out 
with  an  explosion  such  that  not  the  throne,  nor  parliament, 
nor  the  army,  nor  the  exchequer  can  withstand  the  shock. 
And  they  wisely  give  way  to  the  popular  will  when  they  can 
no  longer  resist  it  without  running  too  great  a  risk.  They 
oppose  it  as  far  as  it  is  safe  to  do  so,  and  then  jump  on  and 
ride  it.  And  you  will  see  them  astride  of  the  vote,  if  tho 
common  people  want  it.  But  in  America  it  is  not  so.  The 
vote  with  us  is  so  general  that  there  is  no  danger  of  insur¬ 
rection,  and  there  is  no  danger  that  the  government  will  be 
ruined  by  a  wronged  class  that  lies  coiled  up  beneath  it. 
When  we  speak  of  the  vote  here,  it  is  not  the  representative 
of  a  class,  as  it  is  in  England,  worn  like  a  star,  or  garter, 
saying,  “I  have  the  king’s  favor  or  the  government’s  promise 


SPEECH  BY  IIEXEY  WABD  BEECHES. 


9 


of  honor.”  Voting  with  ns  is  like  breathing.  It  belongs  to 
ns  as  a  common  blessing.  He  that  does  not  vote  is  not  a 
citizen  with  us. 

It  is  not  the  vote  that  I  am  arguing,  except  that  that  is  the 
outlet.  What  I  am  arguing,  when  I  argue  that  woman 
should  vote,  is  that  she  should  do  all  things  back  of  that 
which  the  vote  means  and  enforces.  She  should  be  a  nurs¬ 
ing  mother  to  human  society.  It  is  a  plea  that  I  make,  that 
woman  should  feel  herself  called  to  be  interested  not  alone 
in  the  household,  not  alone  in  the  church,  not  alone  in  just 
that  neighborhood  in  which  she  resides,  but  in  the  sum 
total  of  that  society  to  which  she  belongs ;  and  that  she 
should  feel  that  her  duties  are  not  discharged  until  they  are 
commensurate  with  the  definition  which  our  Saviour  gave 
in  the  parable  of  the  good  Samaritan.  I  argue,  not  woman’s 
right  to  vote  ;  I  argue  woman’s  duty  to  discharge  citizenship. 
(Applause.)  I  say  that  more  and  more  the  great  interests 
of  human  society  in  America  are  such  as  need  the  peculiar 
genius  that  God  has  given  to  woman.  The  questions  that 
are  to  fill  up  our  days  are  not  forever  to  be  mere  money 
questions.  Those  will  always  constitute  a  large  part  of 
politics  ;  but  not  so  large  a  portion  as  hitherto.  We  are 
coming  to  a  period  when  it  is  not  merely  to  be  a  scramble  of 
fierce  and  belluine  passions  in  the  strife  for  power  and  am¬ 
bition.  Human  society  is  yet  to  discuss  questions  of  work 
and  the  workman.  Down  below  privilege  lie  the  masses  of 
men.  More  men,  a  thousand  times,  feel  every  night  the 
ground,  which  is  their  mother,  than  feel  the  stars  and  the 
moon  far  up  in  the  atmosphere  of  favor.  As  when  Christ 
came  the  great  mass  carpeted  the  earth,  instead  of  lifting 
themselves  up  like  trees  of  Lebanon,  so  now  and  here  the 
great  mass  of  men  are  men  that  have  nothing  but  their 
hands,  their  heads,  and  their  good  stalwart  hearts,  as  their 
capital.  The  millions  that  come  from  abroad  come  that 
they  may  have  light  and  power,  and  lift  their  children  up 
out  of  ignorance,  to  whero  they  themselves  could  not  reach 


10 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


with  the  tip  of  their  fingers.  And  the  great  question  of 
to-day  is,  How  shall  work  find  leisure,  and  in  leisure  know¬ 
ledge  and  refinement?  And  this  question  is  knocking  at 
the  door  of  legislation.  And  is  there  a  man  who  does  not 
know,  that  when  questions  of  justice  and  humanity  are 
blended,  woman’s  instinct  is  better  than  man’s  judgment  ? 
From  the  moment  a  woman  takes  the  child  into  her  arms, 
God  makes  her  the  love-magistrate  of  the  family  ;  and  her 
instincts  and  moral  nature  fit  her  to  adjudicate  questions  of 
weakness  and  want.  And  when  society  is  on  the  eve  of 
adjudicating  such  questions  as  these,  it  is  a  monstrous 
fatuity  to  exclude  from  them  the  very  ones  that,  by  nature, 
and  training,  and  instinct,  are  best  fitted  to  legislate  and  to 
judge. 

For  the  sake,  then,  of  such  questions  as  these,  that  have 
come  to  their  birth,  I  feel  it  to  be  women’s  duty  to  act  in 
public  affairs.  I  do  not  stand  here  to  plead  for  your  rights. 
Rights  compared  with  duties,  are  insignificant— are  mere 
baubles — are  as  the  bow  on  your  bonnet.  It  seems  to  me 
that  the  voice  of  God’s  providence  to  you  to-day  is,  “Oh 
messenger  of  mine,  where  are  the  words  that  I  sent  you  to 
speak  ?  Whose  dull,  dead  ear  has  been  raised  to  life  by 
that  vocalization  of  heaven,  that  was  given  to  you  more  than 
to  any  other  one  ?  ”  Man  is  sub-base.  A  thirty-two  feet 
six-inch  pipe  is  he.  But  what  is  an  organ  played  with  the 
feet,  if  all  the  upper  part  is  left  unused  ?  The  flute,  the 
hautboy,  the  finer  trumpet  stops,  all  those  stops  that  minis¬ 
ter  to  the  intellect,  the  imagination,  and  the  higher  feel¬ 
ings — these  must  be  drawn,  and  the  whole  organ  played 
from  top  to  bottom  !  (Applause.) 

More  than  that,  there  are  now  coming  up  for  adjudication 
public  questions  of  education.  And  who,  by  common 
consent,  is  the  educator  of  the  world  ?  Who  has  been  ? 
Schools  are  to  be  of  more  importance  than  railroads — not 
to  undervalue  railroads.  Books  and  ne  wspapers  are  to  be 
more  vital  and  powerful  than  exchequers  and  banks — not 


SPEECH  BY  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 


11 


to  undervalue  exchequers  and  banks.  In  other  words,  as 
society  ripens,  it  has  to  ripen  in  its  three  departments,  in 
the  following  order  :  First,  in  the  animal ;  second,  in  the 
social ;  and  third,  in  the  spiritual  and  moral.  We  are 
entering  the  last  period,  in  which  the  questions  of  politics 
are  to  be  more  and  more  moral  questions.  And  I  invoke 
those  whom  God  made  to  be  peculiarly  conservators  of 
things  moral  and  spiritual  to  come  forward  and  help  us  in 
that  work,  in  which  we  shall  falter  and  fail  without  woman. 
We  shall  never  perfect  human  society  without  her  offices 
and  her  ministration.  We  shall  never  round  out  the 
government,  or  public  administration,  or  public  policies,  or 
politics  itself,  until  you  have  mixed  the  elements  that  God 
gave  to  us  in  society — namely,  the  powers  of  both  men  and 
women.  (Applause.)  I^Jherefore,  charge  my  countrywo¬ 
men  with  this  duty  of  taking  part  in  public  affairs  in  the 
era  in  which  justice,  and  humanity,  and  education,  and 
taste,  and  virtue  are  to  be  more  and  more  a  part  and  parcel 
of  public  procedure. 

We  are  near  the  end  of  the  time  when  men  will  talk  to 
us  about  isms.  I  have  lived  to  see  the  day  when  Grace 
church  lias  preached  politics ;  and  I  am  prepared  to  say, 
“Now,  Lord,  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace.” 
(Great  applause.)  We  have  seen  the  time  when  humanity 
was  so  ostracised  and  was  so  vagabond  that  no  man  that 
valued  his  reputation,  or  his  life  even,  dared  to  preach  it. 
But  that  time  has  gone.  The  sepulchre  is  open,  and  the 
Chr’st  has  come  out,  and  is  a  living  Saviour  ;  and  no  man 
now,  rolling  the  door  back,  can  again  shut  in  the  Saviour  of 
the  world.  It  is  too  late.  He  has  flown.  And  those  regal 
ideas  that  struggle  for  liberty  have  come  forth,  and  spread 
their  wings  to  soar  high,  and  yet  brood  low  over  all  the 
nations,  and  you  shall  never  get  them  back  ;  and  the 
time  is  coming  when  they  will  take  such  proportions  as  we 
do  not  now  suspect.  And  the  men  that  pray  out  of  grog¬ 
shops,  and  out  of  Heralds ,  and  such  like  newspapers,  and 

^ISITY  Of 
library 


12 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


fear  that  the  sacred  garments  of  religion  will  be  soiled  by 
those  who  in  the  pulpit  dabble  with  politics — let  them  pre¬ 
pare  themselves,  for  there  is  to  be  more  dabbling  with  poli¬ 
tics  than  they  ever  saw  before  in  all  their  lives.  (Great 
laughter  and  applause.) 

In  such  a  state  of  society,  then,  as  the  present,  I  stand, 
as  I  have  said,  on  far  higher  ground  in  arguing  this  ques¬ 
tion  than  the  right  of  woman.  That  I  believe  in  ;  but  that 
is  down  in  the  justice’s  court.  I  go  to  the  supreme  bench 
and  argue  it,  and  argue  it  on  the  ground  that  the  nation 
needs  woman,  and  that  woman  needs  the  nation,  and  that 
woman  can  never  become  what  she  should  be,  and  the 
nation  can  never  become  what  it  should  be,  until  there  is 
no  distinction  made  between  the  sexes  as  regards  the  rights 
and  duties  of  citizenship — until  we  come  to  the  28th  verse 
of  the  third  chapter  of  Galatians  : 

“There  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free, 
there  is  neither  male  nor  female :  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus.’ j 

And  when  that  day  comes  ;  when  the  heavenly  kingdom 
is  ushered  in  with  its  myriad  blessed  influences  ;  when  the 
sun  of  righteousness  shall  fill  the  world  with  its  beams,  as 
the  natural  sun,  coming  from  the  far  South,  fills  the  earth 
with  glorious  colors  and  beauty  ;  then  it  will  come  to  pass 
that  there  shall  be  no  nationality,  no  difference  of  classes, 
and  no  difference  of  sexes.  Then  all  shall  be  one  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

I  urge,  then,  that  woman  should  perform  the  duty  of  a 
citizen  in  voting.  You  may,  perhaps,  ask,  before  I  go  any 
further,  “What  is  the  use  of  preaching  to  us  that  we  ought 
to  do  it,  when  we  are  not  permi'ted  to  do  it  ?  ”  That  day  in 
which  the  intelligent,  cultivated  women  of  America  say, 
“We  have  a  right  to  the  ballot,”  will  be  the  day  in  which 
they  will  have  it.  (Voices — “Yes.”  “That  is  so.”)  There 
is  no  power  on  earth  that  can  keep  it  from  then.  (Applause. ) 
The  reason  you  have  not  voted  is  because  you  have  not 


SPEECH  BY  HENBY  WABD  BEECHEE. 


13 


wanted  to.  (Applause.)  It  is  because  you  have  not  felt 
that  it  was  your  duty  to  vote.  You  have  felt  yourselves  to  be 
secure  and  happy  enough  in  your  privileges  and  preroga¬ 
tives,  and  have  left  the  great  mass  of  your  sisters,  that  shed 
tears  and  bore  burdens,  to  shirk  for  themselves.  You  have 
felt  that  you  had  rights  more  than  you  wanted  now.  O  yes, 
it  is  as  if  a  beauty  in  Fifth  avenue,  hearing  one  plead  that 
bread  might  be  sent  to  the  hungry  and  famishing,  should 
say,  “What  is  this  talk  about  bread  for  ?  I  have  as  much 
bread  as  I  want,  and  plenty  of  sweatmeats,  and  I  do  not 
want  your  loaves.”  Shall  one  that  is  glutted  with  abundance 
despise  the  wants  of  the  starving,  who  are  so  far  below  them 
that  they  do  not  hear  their  cries,  not  one  of  which  escapes 
the  ear  of  Almighty  God  ?  Because  you  have  wealth,  and 
knowledge,  and  loving  parents,  or  a  faithful  husband,  or 
kind  brothers,  and  you  feel  no  pressure  of  need,  do  you  feel 
no  inward  pressure  of  humanity  for  others  ?  Is  there  no 
part  of  God’s  great  work  in  providence  that  should  lead  you 
to  be  discontented  with  your  ease  and  privileges  until  you 
are  enfranchised  ?  You  ought  to  vote  ;  and  when  your 
understanding  and  intellect  are  convinced  that  you  ought 
to  do  it,  you  will  have  the  power  to  do  it ;  and  you  never 
will  till  then. 

I.  Woman  has  more  interest  than  man  in  the  promotion 
of  virtue  and  purity  and  humanity.  Half,  shall  I  say  ? — 
Half  does  not  half  measure  the  proportion  of  those  sorrows 
that  come  upon  woman  by  reason  of  her  want  of  influence 
and  power.  All  the  young  men  that,  breaking  down,  break 
fathers’  and  mothers’  hearts ;  all  those  that  struggle  near 
to  the  grave,  weeping  piteous  tears  of  blood,  it  might 
almost  be  said,  and  that  at  last,  under  paroxysms  of  de¬ 
spair,  sin  against  nature,  and  are  swept  out  of  misery  into 
damnation  ;  the  spectacles  that  fill  our  cities,  and  afflict 
and  torment  villages — what  are  these  but  reasons  that  sum¬ 
mon  woman  to  have  a  part  in  that  regenerating  of  thought 
aud  that  regenerating  of  legislation  which  shall  make  vice  a 


14 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


crime,  and  vice-makers  criminals  ?  Do  yon  suppose  tliat, 
if  ib  were  to  turn  on  the  votes  of  women  to-day  whether 
rum  should  be  sold  in  every  shop  in  this  city,  there  would 
be  one  moment’s  delay  in  settling  the  question  ?  What  to 
the  oak  lightning  is,  that  marks  it  and  descends  swiftly  upon 
it,  that  woman’s  vote  would  be  to  miscreant  vices  in  iheso 
great  cities.  (Applause.) 

Ah,  I  speak  that  which  I  do  know.  As  a  physician 
speaks  from  that  which  he  sees  in  the  hospital  where  he 
ministers,  so  I  speak  from  that  which  I  behold  in  my  pro¬ 
fessional  position  and  place,  where  I  see  the  undercurrent 
of  life.  I  hear  groans  that  come  from  smiling  faces.  I  wit¬ 
ness  tears  that  when  others  look  upon  the  face  are  alls  wept 
away,  as  the  rain  is  when  one  comes  after  a  storm.  Not 
most  vocal  are  our  deepest  sorrows.  Oh,  the  sufferings  of 
wives  for  husbands  untrue  !  Oh,  the  sufferings  of  mothers 
for  sons  led  astray  !  Oh,  the  sufferings  of  sisters  for  sisters 
gone  !  Oh,  the  sufferings  of  companions  for  companion- 
women  desecrated  !  And  I  hold  it  to  be  a  shame  that  they, 
who  have  the  instinct  of  purity  and  of  divine  remedial 
mercy  more  than  any  other,  should  withhold  their  hand 
from  that  public  legislation  by  which  society  may  be 
scoured,  and  its  pests  cleared  away.  And  I  declare  that 
woman  has  more  interest  in  legislation  than  man,  because 
she  is  the  sufferer  and  the  home-staying,  ruined  victim. 

II.  The  household,  about  which  we  hear  so  much  said  as 
being  woman’s  sphere,  is  safe  only  as  the  community  around 
about  it  is  safe.  Now  and  then  there  may  be  a  Lot  that 
can  live  in  Sodom  ;  but  when  Lot  was  called  to  emigrate, 
he  could  not  get  all  his  children  to  go  with  him.  They  had 
been  intermarried  and  corrupted.  A  Christian  woman  is 
said  to  have  all  that  she  needs  for  her  understanding  and 
to  task  her  powers  if  she  will  stay  at  home  and  mend  her 
husband’s  clothes,  if  she  has  a  husband,  and  take  care  of 
her  children,  if  she  has  children.  The  welfare  of  the  family, 
it  is  said,  ought  to  occupy  her  time  and  thoughts.  And 


SPEECH  BY  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 


15 


some  ministers,  in  descanting  upon  tlie  sphere  of  woman, 
are  -wont  to  magnify  the  glory  and  beauty  of  a  mother 
teaching  some  future  chief-justice  or  some  president  of  the 
United  States.  Not  one  whit  of  glory  would  I  withdraw 
from  such  a  canvas  as  that ;  but  I  aver  that  the  power  to 
teach  these  children  largely  depends  upon  the  influences 
that  surround  the  household  ;  so  that  she  that  would  take 
the  best  care  of  the  house  must  take  care  of  the  atmosphere 
which  is  around  the  house  as  well.  And  every  true  and 
wise  Christian  woman  is  bound  to  have  a  thought  for  the 
village,  for  the  county,  for  the  State,  and  for  the  nation. 
(Applause.) 

That  was  not  the  kind  of  woman  that  brought  me  up — a 
woman  that  never  thought  of  anything  outside  of  her  own 
door-yard.  My  mother’s  house  was  as  wide  as  Christ’s 
house  ;  and  she  taught  me  to  understand  the  words  of  him 
that  said,  “  The  field  is  the  world  ;  and  whoever  needs  is 
your  brother.  ”  A  woman  that  is  content  to  wash  stockings, 
and  make  Johnny-cake,  and  to  look  after  and  bring  up  her 
boys  faultless  to  a  button,  and  that  never  thinks  beyond 
the  meal-tub,  and  whose  morality  is  so  small  as  to  be  con¬ 
fined  to  a  single  house,  is  an  under-grown  woman,  and  will 
sx'>end  the  first  thousand  years  after  death  in  coming  to  that 
state  in  which  she  ought  to  have  been  before  she  died. 
(Laughter.)  Tell  me  that  a  woman  is  fit  to  give  an  ideal 
life  to  an  American  citizen,  to  enlarge  his  sympathies,  to 
make  him  wise  in  judgment,  and  to  establish  him  in  pa¬ 
triotic  regard,  who  has  no  thought  above  what  to  eat  and 
drink,  and  wherewithal  to  be  clothed.  The  best  house¬ 
keepers  are  they  that  are  the  most  widely  beneficent. 
“  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and 
all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you.”  God  will  take 
care  of  the  stockings,  if  you  will  take  care  of  the  heads  ! 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  Universal  beneficence  never  hin¬ 
ders  anybody’s  usefulness  in  any  particular  field  of  duty. 
Therefore,  woman’s  sphere  should  not  be  limited  to  the 


16 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


household.  The  public  welfare  requires  that  she  should 
have  a  thought  of  affairs  outside  of  the  household,  and  in 
the  whole  community. 

ILL.  "Woman  brings  to  public  affairs  peculiar  qualities, 
aspirations,  and  affections  which  society  needs.  I  have  had 
persons  say  to  me,  “  Would  you,  now,  take  your  daughter 
and  your  wife,  and  walk  down  to  the  polls  with  them  ?  ”  If 
I  were  to  take  my  daughter  and  my  wife,  and  walk  down 
to  the  polls  with  them,  and  there  was  a  squirming  crowd  of 
bloated,  loud-mouthed,  blattering  men,  wrangling  like  so 
many  maggots  on  cheese,  what  would  take  place,  but  that, 
at  the  moment  I  appeared  with  my  wife  and  daughter  walk¬ 
ing  by  my  side  with  conscious  dignity  and  veiled  modesty, 
the  lane  would  open,  and  I  should  pass  through  the  red 
sea  unharmed  ?  (Great  applause.)  Where  is  there  a  mob 
such  that  the  announcement  that  a  woman  is  present,  does 
not  bring  down  the  loudest  of  them  ?  Nothing  but  the 
sorcery  of  rum  prevents  a  man  from  paying  unconscious, 
instant  respect  to  the  presence  of  a  woman. 

I  am  asked,  “Would  you  take  your  wife  and  daughter 
into  the  vulgarity  of  politics  ?  ”  Now,  to  take  your  wife 
and  daughter  into  the  vulgarity  of  politics  is  to  cleanse 
politics  of  its  vulgarity.  (Applause.)  Politics  is  vulgar, 
because  you  are  not  there,  woman  ;  and  that  is  one  of  the 
reasons  why  you  must  be  there.  You  may  surround  the 
polls  with  as  many  inspectors  of  election  as  the  room  would 
hold,  and  station  a  line  of  policemen  or  military  all  the  way 
from  the  door  to  the  ballot-box,  and  corruption  will  creep 
through  them  ;  but  put  a  revered  mother,  a  beloved  wife, 
or  an  honored  sister  there,  and  corruption  will  look  upon 
them,  and  veil  its  face,  and  pass  on.  (Applause.)  It  is  the 
presence  of  woman  in  public  affairs,  actuated  by  a  high 
sense  of  duty;  and  befriended  and  co-operated  with  by 
man,  that  allays  corruption,  wards  off  insult,  and  brings 
peace  where  was  strife  and  struggle.  And,  therefore,  I 
say,  Politics  is  as  the  poor  wretch  that  called  out  to  the 


SPEECH  BY  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 


17 


Master,  “  Art  thou  come  to  torment  me  before  my  time,” 
when  woman  approaches  it.  And  a  voice  shall  yet  be  heard 
saying,  “  I  command  thee  to  come  out  of  it.”  And  the 
devil  will  cast  it  on  the  ground,  and  tear  it,  and  it  will  wal¬ 
low  foaming,  and  the  devil  will  come  out  of  it,  and  it  will 
be  worth  twenty  times  more  without  a  devil  than  with  a 
devil  in  it.  (Applause.) 

IV.  The  history  of  woman’s  co-operative  labors  thus  far 
justifies  the  most  sanguine  anticipations,  such  as  I  have 
alluded  to.  Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  purification  of 
literature.  The  influence  of  woman  has  been  a  part  of  the 
cause  of  this,  unquestionably  ;  but  I  would  not  ascribe 
such  a  result  to  any  one  cause.  God  is  a  great  workman, 
and  has  a  chest  full  of  tools,  and  never  uses  one  tool,  but 
always  many  ;  and  in  the  purification  of  literature,  the  ele¬ 
vation  of  thought,  the  advancement  of  the  public  sentiment 
of  the  world  in  humanity,  God  has  employed  more  than 
that  which  has  been  wrought  in  their  departments.  And 
that  which  the  church  has  long  ago  achieved  for  herself, 
that  which  the  family  has  achieved — that,  in  more  eminence 
and  more  wondrous  and  surprising  beauty,  the  world  will 
achieve  for  itself  in  public  affairs,  when  man  and  woman 
co-operate  there,  as  now  they  are  co-operating  in  all  other 
spheres  of  taste,  intellection  and  morality. 

Let  me  now  pas3,  without  touching  upon  some  other 
points  which  I  had  marked,  to  a  consideration  of  a  few  of 
the  objections  that  are  made  to  woman’s  mixing  in  public 
affairs  as  a  voter  and  as  a  citizen. 

L  It  is  said,  “  A  jvonian’s  place  is  at  home. ’’  Well,  now, 
since  compromises  are  coming  into  vogue  again,  will  you 
compromise  with  me,  and  agree  that  until  a  woman  has  a 
home  she  may  vote  ?  (Laughter.)  That  is  only  fair.  It  is 
said,  “  She  ought  to  stay  at  home,  and  attend  to  home 
duty,  and  minister  to  the  wants  of  father,  or  husband,  or 
brothers.”  Well,  may  all  orphan  women,  and  unmarried 
women,  and  women  that  have  no  abiding  place  of  residence 


18 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


vote  ?  If  not,  where  is  the  argument  ?  But,  to  look  at  it 
seriously,  what  is  the  defect  of  this  statement  ?  It  is  the 
impression  that  staying  at  home  is  incompatible  with  going 
abroad.  Never  was  there  a  more  monstrous  fallacy.  I  light 
my  candle,  and  it  gives  me  all  the  light  I  want,  and  it  gives 
all  the  light  you  want  to  you,  and  to  you,  and  to  you,  and 
to  every  other  one  in  the  room  ;  and  there  is  not  one  single 
ray  that  you  get  there  which  cheats  me  here  ;  and  a  woman 
that  is  doing  her  duty  right  in  the  family,  sheds  a  beneficent 
influence  out  upon  the  village  in  which  she  dwells,  without 
taking  a  moment’s  more  time. 

My  cherry-trees  are  joyful  in  all  their  blossoms,  and 
thousands  go  by  them  and  see  them  in  their  beauty  day  by 
day  ;  but  I  never  mourn  the  happiness  that  they  bestow  on 
passers-by  as  having  been  taken  from  me.  I  am  not  cheated 
by  the  perfume  that  goes  from  my  flowers  into  my  neigh¬ 
bor’s  yard.  And  the  character  of  a  true  woman  is  such  that 
it  may  shine  everywhere  without  making  her  any  poorer. 
She  is  richer  in  proportion  as  she  gives  away.  (Applause.) 
It  is  that  which  you  give  away  that  you  keep.  It  is  that 
which  you  keep  that  can  never  do  any  good  to  yourselves 
or  others.  It  is  that  which  you  give  away  that  bounds  back 
and  makes  you  stronger. 

Why,  I  set  a  candle  in  my  window  in  the  country,  that 
they  who  come  up  the  lane  may  see  how  to  drive  and  reach 
my  house,  and  clear  down  to  the  road  that  modest  candle 
sheds  its  light ;  but  does  it  cheat  me  ?  Does  it  fail  to  do 
its  work  inside  because  it  sends  its  long  line  of  light  out¬ 
side  ?  Borne  men  seem  to  think  that,  if  woman  should  get 
the  rights  that  she  is  clamoring  for,  she  would  do  nothing 
but  put  a  reticule  on  her  arm,  and  start  out  every  morning 
with  a  bundle  of  tracts,  discussing  all  manner  of  questions. 
Oh  no,  she  is  not  a  man  !  If  she  were  a  man  she  would 
go  about  with  noisy  inefficiency,  buzzing  and  bustling,  and 
making  a  great  ado  about  nothing  ;  but,  being  a  woman,  she 
goes  about  what  she  has  to  do,  and  does  it  so  quietly  as 


SPEECH  BY  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 


19 


scarcely  to  be  noticed.  And  is  slie  not  a  skilful  manager  ? 
Does  she  not  know  how  to  give  up  and  conquer  ?  Does 
she  not  know  how  to  touch  the  subtle  springs  of  action  ? 
Has  she  not  the  element  of  foresight  ?  It  is  called  “  tact.” 
I  do  not  care  what  you  call  it ;  it  is  blessed.  For  next  to 
having  your  own  way,  is  thinking  that  you  have  it.  (Laugh¬ 
ter.)  Some  of  the  sweetest  experiences  of  my  life  were 
when  my  father,  who  was  two-thkds  a  woman — a  woman 
with  man’s  enamel  on — took  my  side  when  I  meant  to  go 
to  sea,  and  made  it  all  so  plain  and  right  that,  when  I  came 
to  the  point  of  deciding,  I  did  not  want  to  go,  and  all 
trouble  was  avoided.  If  he  had  whipped  me,  and  shut  me 
up,  and  scolded  me,  I  should  have  gone  away  ;  and  I  do  not 
know  where  I  should  have  been  buried — somewhere. 
"Woman  has  that  peculiar  quality  of  doing  much  while  she 
talks  little.  Her  life  i3  largely  in  the  sphere  of  spiritual 
unembodied  power.  She  works  with  the  fewest  instruments, 
and  the  least  noise  possible,  and  avoids  observation  ;  while 
man  works  with  all  the  instrumentation  at  his  command, 
and  makes  the  greatest  possible  amount  of  noise  and  clat¬ 
ter.  And  it  is  just  because  woman  is  woman  that  she  is 
fitted,  while  she  takes  care  of  the  household,  to  take  care 
of  the  village  and  the  community  around  about  her. 

II.  It  is  said,  “It  will  destroy  woman’s  delicacy  if  she 
goes  into  politics.”  Certainly,  if  she  goes  into  partnership 
with  some  politicians.  One  base  politician  is  corruption 
enough  to  spoil  a  whole  village  ;  and  I  would  not  have  her 
innoculated  with  it  for  the  world.  But  I  do  not  propose 
that  she  should  change  her  sex.  I  would  a  great  deal  rather 
have  a  man  that  was  born  a  man  than  a  woman  that  has 
become  a  man.  Unsexing  is  poor  business.  I  have  seen 
men  that  tried  to  be  women  ;  and  women  that  tried  to  be 
men  ;  and  commend  me  to  women  that  are  women  by 
nature,  and  men  that  are  men  by  nature,  and  to  no  mixture. 
(Applause.)  If  you  come  into  public  affairs  with  the  same 
kind  of  ratiocinative  force  that  men  do,  you  will  be  no  better 


20 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


there  than  men  ;  but  if  you  do  not  divest  yourself  of  those 
intuitions  of  the  moral  sense,  and  that  foresight,  that  tact, 
which  you  employ  in  other  spheres,  then  your  presence 
there  will  be  more  fruitful  of  good  than  men’s.  It  is  to  bring 
these  things  into  the  place  of  the  coarser  instrumentations 
of  politics  that  I  want  you  to  be  a  woman  more  than  ever. 
And,  if  there  be  sweetness  on  the  tongue,  let  it  ring  like  a 
silver  bell.  If  there  be  mildness  in  the  eye,  let  it  not  give 
place  to  fierce  zeal.  If  there  be  melody  of  the  heart,  let  it 
charm  away  that  which  is  bad  in  public  affairs.  It  is  as  a 
woman  that  you  are  summoned  to  take  part  in  those  affairs. 
If  you  lay  aside  the  woman,  then  you  are  not  needed.  It  is 
to  get  another  sort  of  influence  in  public  affairs  that  we 
dead  for  woman’s  entrance  there. 


i  But  it  is  said,  “  She  ought  toact  through  her  father,  or 
husband,  or  son.”  Why  ought  she  ?  Did  you  ever  frame 
an  argument  to  show  why  the  girl  should  use  her  father  to 
vote  for  her,  and  the  boy  who  is  younger,  and  not  half  so 
witty,  should  vote  for  himself  ?  It  does  not  admit  of  an 
argument.  If  the  grandmother,  the  mother,  the  wife,  and 
the  eldest  daughter,  are  to  be  voted  for  by  the  father,  the 
husband,  and  the  eldest  brother,  then  why  are  not  the 
children  to  be  voted  for  in  complete  family  relation  by  the 
patriarchal  head  ?  Why  not  go  back  to  the  tribal  custom  of 
the  desert,  and  let  the  patriarch  do~ all  tbe  votimT?  To  be 
sure,  it  would  change  the  whole  form  of  our  government ; 
but,  if  it  is  good  for  the  family,  it  is  just  as  good  for  classes. 
I  should  like  to  see  one  man  go  to  another  and  claim  the 
right  to  vote  for  him.  Suppose  I  should  go  to  men  that  are 
working  for  me,  and  say,  “  Boys,  you  are  nothing  but 
workmen,  and  I  am  the  owner  of  a  fancy  farm,  which  I  pay 
roundly  for,  and  you  ought  to  let  me  vote  for  you  ;  tell  me 
what  you  want,  and  I  will  take  it  into  consideration.*’ 
There  would  be  as  much  reason  in  this  as  there  is  in  the 
argument  that  woman  ought  not  to  vote  because  her  hus¬ 
band  or  father  can  vote  for  her. 


SPEECH  BY  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 


21 


In  a  frontier  settlement ic  a  log  cabin,  and  it  is  in  a  region 
wnich  is  infested  by  wolves.  There  are  in  the  family  a 
broken-down  patient  of  a  man,  a  mother,  and  three  daugh¬ 
ters.  The  house  is  surrounded  by  a  pack  of  these  voracious 
animals,  and  the  inmates  feel  that  their  safety  requires  that 
the  intruders  should  be  driven  away.  There  are  three  or 
four  rifles  in  the  house.  The  man  creeps  to  one  of  the 
windows,  and  to  the  mother  and  daughter  it  is  said,  “  You 
load  the  rifles,  and  hand  them  to  me,  and  let  me  fire  them.” 
But  they  can  load  all  the  four  rifles,  and  he  cannot  fire  half 
as  fast  as  they  can  load  ;  and  I  say  to  the  mother,  “Can 
you  shoot?”  She  says,  “Let  me  try;”  and  she  takes  a 
gun,  and  points  it  at  the  wolves,  and  pulls  the  trigger,  and 
I  see  one  of  them  throw  his  feet  up  in  the  air.  “  Ah  !  ”  I 
say,  “I  see  you  can  shoot !  You  keep  the  rifle,  and  fire  it 
yourself.”  And  I  say  to  the  oldest  daughter,  “Can  you 
shoot?”  “I  guess  I  can,”  she  says.  “Well,  dare  you  ?” 
“I  dare  do  anything  to  save  father  and  the  family.” 
And  she  takes  one  of  the  rifles,  and  pops  over  another  of 
the  pack.  And  I  tell  you,  if  the  wolves  knew  that  all  the 
women  were  firing,  they  would  flee  from  that  cabin  in- 
stanter.  (Laughter.)  I  do  not  object  to  a  woman  loading 
a  man’s  rifle  and  letting  him  shoot ;  but  I  say  that,  if  there 
are  two  rifles,  she  ought  to  load  one  of  them  and  shoot  her¬ 
self.  And  I  do  not  see  any  use  of  a  woman’s  influencing  a 
man,  and  loading  him  with  a  vote,  and  letting  him  go  and 
fire  it  off  at  the  ballot-box.  (Laughter  and  applause.) 

//It  is  said,  again,  “Woman  is  a  creature  of  such  an 
excitable  nature  that,  if  she  were  to  mingle  with  men  in 
public  affairs,  it  would  introduce  a  kind  of  vindictive  acri¬ 
mony,  and  politics  would  become  intolerable.”  O,  if  I 
really  thought  so,  if  I  thought  that  the  purity  of  politics 
would  be  sullied,  I  would  hot  say  another  word  !  (Laugh¬ 
ter.)  I  do  not  want  to  take  anything  from  the  celestial 
graces  of  politics  !  (Benewed  laughter.)  I  want  Fernando 
Wood  and  the  aldermen  of  New  York  to  understand  that  I 


22 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


would  not  on  any  account  demoralize  politics  ;  and,  if  I 
believed  that  bringing  our  mothers  and  wives  and  daughters 
into  politics  would  have  a  tendency  to  lower  its  moral  tone 
in  the  slightest  degree,  I  would  give  up  the  argument. 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  I  will  admit  that  woman  is  an 
excitable  creature,  and  I  will  admit  that  politics  needs  no 
more  excitement ;  but  sometimes,  you  know,  things  are 
homoeopathic.  A  woman’s  excitement  is  apt  to  put  out  a 
man’s  ;  and  if  she  should  bring  her  excitability  into  politics, 
it  is  likely  that  it  would  neutralize  the  excitement  already 
there,  and  that  there  would  be  a  grand  peace  !  (Laughter.) 

But,  not  to  trifle  with  it,  woman  is  excitable.  Woman  is 
yet  to  be  educated.  Woman  is  yet  to  experience  the  re¬ 
actionary  influence  of  being  a  public  legislator  and  thinker. 
And  let  her  sphere  be  extended  beyond  the  family  and  the 
school,  so  that  she  should  be  interested  in,  and  actively 
engaged  in  promoting  the  welfare  of  the  whole  community, 
and  in  the  course  of  three  generations  the  reaction  on  her 
would  be  such  that  the  excitement  she  would  bring  into 
public  affairs  would  be  almost  purely  moral  inspiration.  It 
would  be  the  excitement  of  purity  and  disinterested  benevo¬ 
lence.  And  this  excitement  we  need.  Bor,  although  men 
decry  excitement,  and  enthusiasm,  and  fanaticism,  that 
cause  which  has  not  enthusiasm  in  it  is  dead,  and  ought  to 
be  buried ;  and  only  that  cause  has  regency  and  potency 
which  has  in  it  just  that  excitement,  indomitable,  far- 
reaching,  and  purifying,  which  comes  from  man’s  and 
woman’s  moral  instincts.  And  I  would  to  God  that  we 
could  have  a  little  more  of  such  enthusiasm  and  fanaticism 
in  politics.  (Applause.) 

V  It  is  said,  furthermore,  “  Woman  might  vote  for  herself,, 
and  take  office.”  Why  not?  A  woman  makes  as  good  a 
postmistress  as  a  man  does  postmaster.  Woman  has  been 
tried  in  every  office  from  the  throne  to  the  position  of  the 
humblest  servant ;  and  where  has  she  been  found  remiss  ? 
I  believe  that  multitudes  of  the  offices  that  are  held  by  men 


SPEECH  BY  HENBY  WAED  BEECHEE. 


23 


arc  mere  excuses  for  leading  an  effeminate  life ;  and  that 
with  their  superior*pbysical  strength  it  behooves  them  better 
to  be  actors  out  of  doors,  where  the  severity  of  climate  and 
the  elements  is  to  be  encountered,  and  leave  indoor  offices 
to  women,  to  whom  they  more  properly  belong. 

But,  women,  you  are  not  educated  for  these  offices.  I 
hear  bad  reports  of  you.  It  is  told  me  that  the  trouble  in 
giving  places  to  women  is  that  they  will  not  do  their  work 
well ;  that  they  do  not  feel  the  sense  of  conscience.  They 
have  been  flattered  so  long,  they  have  been  called  “women  ” 
so  long,  they  have  had  compliments  instead  of  rights  so 
long,  that  they  are  spoiled ;  but  when  a  generation  of 
young  women  shall  have  been  educated  to  a  stern  sense  of 
right  and  duty,  and  shall  take  no  compliments  at  the  expense 
of  right,  we  shall  have  no  such  complaints  as  these.  And 
when  a  generation  of  women,  working  with  the  love  of  God 
and  true  patriotism  in  their  souls,  shall  have  begun  to  hold 
office,  meriting  it,  and  being  elected  to  it  by  those  that 
would  rather  have  a  woman  than  a  man  in  office,  then 
you  may  depend  upon  it  that  education  has  qualified  them 
for  the  trusts  which  are  committed  to  them.  We  have  tried 
“old  women  ”  in  office,  and  I  am  convinced  that  it  would 
be  better  to  have  real  women  than  virile  old  women  in 
public  stations.  (Laughter  and  applause. )  For  my  own  sake, 
give  me  a  just,  considerate,  true,  straight-forward,  honest- 
minded,  noble-hearted  woman,  who  has  been  able,  in  the 
fear  of  God,  to  briDg  up  six  boys  in  the  way  they  should 
go,  and  settle  them  in  life.  If  there  is  anything  harder  in 
this  nation  than  that,  tell  me  what  it  is.  ^4.  woman  that  can 
bring  up  a  family  of  strong-brained  children,  and  ' make 
geed-eitizeirs  of  them,  can  be^Frestoient  withoutimy-drffi---- - 
culty.  (Applause.) 

Let  me  now  close  with  one  single  thought  in  connection 
with  this  objection.  I  protest  in  the  name  of  my  country¬ 
women  against  the  aspersion  which  is  cast  upon  them  by 
these  who  say  that  woman  is  not  fit  to  hold  office  or  dis- 


24 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


charge  public  trusts.  The  name  of  what  potentate  to-day, 
if  you  go  round  the  world,  would  probably,  in  every  nation 
on  the  earth,  bring  down  most  enthusiasm  and  public  appro¬ 
bation  ?  If  I  now,  here  in  your  midst,  shall  mention  the 
name  of  Queen  Victoria,  your  cheers  will  be  a  testimony  to 
your  admiration  of  this  noble  woman.  (Great  applause.) 
Though  it  be  in  a  political  meeting,  or  any  other  public 
gathering,  no  man  can  mention  her  name  without  eliciting 
enthusiastic  tokens  of  respect.  And  yet,  the  same  men  that 
cheer  her  will  go  home,  and  put  on  their  spectacles,  and 
argue  that  woman  ought  not  to ‘hold  office  ?  Was  there  ever 
a  nobler  specimen  of  woman  than  the  Duchess  of  Suther¬ 
land  ?  And  is  there  a  nobler  woman  than  her  daughter,  the 
Duchess  of  Argyle — a  friend  to  our  cause,  and  one  who  our 
Minister,  Mr.  Adams,  told  me  knew  more  of  public  affairs 
than  he  did  ?  There  are  state  occasions  when  she  must 
stand  in  Parliament  with  her  queen,  and  perform  appropri¬ 
ate  public  duties  ;  and  who  ever  thought  that  in  her  doing 
it  there  was  any  derogation  of  her  sex  ?  Who  ever  thought 
that  a  duchess  in  France,  or  a  queen  in  Russia,  or  an 
empress  in  Austria,  or  any  aristocratic  -woman,  was  unsexed 
or  demeaned  by  occupying  a  high  position  under  the 
government  ? 

It  is  a  controversy  to-day  between  woman  aristocratic  and 
woman  democratic  (applause)  ;  and  I  claim  that  what  it  is 
right  for  an  aristocratic  woman  to  do— what  it  is  right  for 
a  duchess,  or  a  queen,  or  an  empress  to  do — it  is  right  for 
the  simplest  and  plainest  of  my  countrywomen  to  do,  that 
has  no  title,  and  no  credentials,  except  the  fact  that  God 
made  her  a  woman.  All  that  I  claim  for  the  proudest  aris¬ 
tocrat  I  claim  for  all  other  women.  (Applause.)  I  do  not 
object  to  a  woman’s  being  a  queen,  or  a  president,  if  she 
has  the  qualifications  which  fit  her  to  be  one.  And  I  claim 
that,  where  there  is  a  woman  that  has  the  requisite  qualifi¬ 
cations  for  holding  any  office  in  the  family,  in  the  church, 
or  in  the  State,  there  is  no  reason  why  she  should  not  bo 


SPEECH  BY  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 


25 


allowed  to  hold  it.  And  we  shall  have  a  perfect  crystal  idea 
of  the  State,  with  all  its  contents,  only  when  man  under¬ 
stands  the  injunction,  “What  God  hath  joined  together  let 
no  man  put  asunder.”  (Great  applause.) 


REMARKS  BY  MB.  BEECHER, 

AT  THE 

FIRST  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  EQUAL  RIGHTS  ASSOCIATION, 

NEW  YORK,  MAY  10,  1037. 

I  come  here  to-day  to  bear  my  testimony,  not  as  if  I  had 
not  already  done  it,  but  again,  as  confirmed  by  all  that  I 
have  read,  whether  of  things  written  in  England  or  spoken 
in  America,  in  the  belief  that  this  movement  is  not  the  mere 
progeny  of  a  fitful  and  feverish  Ism — that  it  is  not  a  mere 
frothing  eddy  whose  spirit  is  but  the  chafing  of  the  water 
upon  the  rock — but  that  it  is  a  part  of  that  great  tide  which 
follows  the  drawiug  of  heaven  itself.  I  believe  it  to  be  so. 

All  my  lifetime  the  great  trouble  has  been  that  in  merely 
speculative  things  theologians  have  been  such  furious  logi¬ 
cians,  have  picked  up  their  premises,  and  rushed  with  them 
with  race-horse  speed  to  such  remote  conclusions,  that  in 
the  region  of  ideas  our  logical  minds  have  become  accus¬ 
tomed  to  draw  results  as  remote  as  the  very  eternities  from 
any  premises  given.  My  difficulty,  on  the  other  hand,  has 
been  that,  in  practical  matters,  owing  to  the  existence  of 
this  great  mephitic  swamp  of  slavery,  men  have  been  utterly 
unwilling  to  draw  conclusions  at  all ;  and  that  the  most 
familiar  principles  of  political  economy  or  politics  have  been 
enunciated,  and  then  always  docked  off  short.  Men  would 
not  allow  them  to  go  to  their  natural  results,  in  the  class  of 
questions  in  society.  We  have  had  raised  up  before  us  the 


26 


woman’s  doty  to  vote. 


necessity  of  maintaining  the  Union  by  denying  conclusions. 
The  most  dear  and  sacred  and  animating  principles  of  re¬ 
ligion  have  been  restrained,  because  they  would  have  such  a 
bearing  upon  slavery,  and  men  felt  bound  to  hold  their  peace. 
Our  most  profound  and  broadly  acknowledged  principles  of 
liberty  have  been  enunciated  and  passed  over,  without  carry¬ 
ing  them  out  and  applying  them  to  society,  because  it  would 
interrupt  the  peace  of  the  nation.  That  time  is  passed 
away;  and  as  the  result  of  it,  has  come  in  a  joy  and  a  perfect 
appetite  on  the  part  of  the  public. 

I  have  been  a  careful  observer  for  more  than  thirty-five 
years,  for  I  came  into  public  life,  I  believe,  about  the  same 
time  with  the  lady  who  has  just  sat  down  (Mrs.  Abby  Kelley 
Foster),  although  I  am  not  so  much  worn  by  my  labors  as 
she  seems  to  have  been.  For  thirty-five  years  I  have  ob¬ 
served  in  society  its  impetus  checked,  an  da  kind  of  lethargy 
and  deadness  in  practical  ethics  arising,  from  fear  of  this 
prejudicial  effect  upon  public  economy.  I  have  noticed 
that  in  the  last  five  years  there  has  been  a  revolution  as  per¬ 
fect  as  if  it  had  been  God’s  resurrection  in  the  graveyard. 
The  dead  men  are  living,  and  the  live  men  are  thrice  alive. 
I  can  scarcely  express  my  sense  of  the  leap  the  public  mind 
and  the  public  moral  sense  have  taken  within  this  time. 
The  barrier  is  out  of  the  way.  That  which  made  the  Ameri¬ 
can  mind  untrue  logically  to  itself  is  smitten  down  by  the  hand 
of  God  ;  and  there  is  just  at  this  time  an  immense  tendency 
in  the  public  mind  to  carry  out  all  principles  to  their  legiti¬ 
mate  conclusions,  go  where  they  will.  There  never  was  a 
time  when  men  were  so  practical,  and  so  ready  to  learn.  I 
am  not  a  farmer,  but  I  know  that  the  spring  comes  but 
once  in  the  year.  When  the  furrow  is  open  is  the  time  to 
put  in  your  seed,  if  you  would  gather  a  harvest  in  its  season. 
Now,  when  the  red-hot  ploughshare  of  war  has  opened  a 
furrow  in  this  nation,  is  the  time  to  put  in  the  seed.  If 
any  man  says  to  me,  “Why  will  you  agitate  the  woman’s 
question,  when  it  is  the  hour  for  the  black  man  ?  ”  I  an- 


SPEECH  BY  HENEY  WAKD  BEECHES. 


27 


swer,  it  is  the  hour  for  every  man,  black  or  white.  (Ap¬ 
plause.)  The  bees  go  out  in  the  morning  to  gather  the 
honey  from  the  morning-glories.  They  take  it  when  they 
are  open,  for  by  ten  o’clock  they  are  shut,  and  they  never 
open  again.  When  the  public  mind  is  open,  if  you  have 
anything  to  say,  say  it.  If  you  have  any  radical  principles 
to  urge,  any  organizing  wisdom  to  make  known,  don’t  wait 
until  quiet  times  come.  Don’t  wait  until  th,e  public  mind 
shuts  up  altogether. 

War  has  opened  the  way  for  impulse  to  extend  itself. 
And  progress  goes  by  periods,  by  jumps  and  spurts.  We 
are  in  the  favored  hour  ;  and  if  you  have  great  principles 
to  make  known,  this  is  the  time  to  advance  those  principles. 
If  you  can  organize  them  into  institutions,  this  is  the  time 
to  organize  them.  I  therefore  say,  whatever  truth  is  to  be 
known  for  the  next  fifty  years  in  this  nation  let  it  be  spoken 
now — let  it  be  enforced  now. 

The  truth  that  I  have  to  urge  is  not  that  women  have  the 
right  of  suffrage — not  that  Chinamen  or  Irishmen  have  the 
right  of  suffrage — not  that  native  born  Yankees  have  the 
right  of  suffrage — but  that  suffrage  is  the  inherent  right  of 
mankind.  I  say  that  man  has  the  right  of  suffrage  as  I  say 
that  man  has  the  right  to  himself.  For  although  it  may 
not  be  true  under  the  Russian  government,  where  the  gov¬ 
ernment  does  not  rest  on  the  people,  and  although  under 
our  own  government  a  man  has  not  a  right  to  himself, 
except  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  and  action  of  our  own 
institutions,  yet  our  institutions  make  the  government, 
depend  on  the  people,  and  make  the  people  depend  on  the 
government ;  and  no  man  is  a  full  citizen,  or  fully  compe¬ 
tent  to  take  care  of  himself,  or  to  defend  himself,  that  has 
not  all  those  rights  that  belong  to  his  fellows.  I  therefore 
advocate  no  sectional  rights,  no  class  rights,  no  sex  rights  ; 
but  the  most  universal  form  of  rights  for  all  that  live  and 
breathe  on  the  continent.  I  do  not  put  back  the  black 
man’s  emancipation  ;  nor  do  I  put  back  for  a  single  day  or 


28 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


for  an  hour  his  admission.  I  ask  not  that  he  should 
wait.  I  demand  that  this  work  shall  be  done,  not  upon  the 
ground  that  it  is  politically  expedient  now  to  enfranchise 
black  men  ;  but  I  propose  that  you  take  expediency  out  of 
the  way,  and  that  you  put  a  principle  that  is  more  enduring 
than  expediency  in  the  place  of  it — manhood  and  woman¬ 
hood  suffrage  for  all. 

That  is  the  question.  You  may  just  as  well  meet  it  now 
as  at  any  other  time.  You  never  will  have  so  favorable  an 
occasion,  so  sympathetic  a  heart,  never  a  public  reason  so 
willing  to  be  convinced  as  to-day.  If  anything  is  to  be 
done  for  the  black  man,  or  the  black  woman,  or  for  the 
disfranchised  classes  among  the  whites,  let  it  be  done,  in 
the  name  of  God,  while  his  Providence  says,  “  Come  ;  come 
all,  and  come  welcome.” 

But  I  take  wisdom  from  some  with  whom  I  have  not 
always  trained.  If  you  would  get  ten  steps,  has  been  the 
practical  philosophy  of  some  who  are  not  here  to-day, 
demand  twenty,  and  then  you  will  get  ten.  Now  even  if  I 
were  to  confine — as  I  by  no  means  do — my  expectation  to 
gaining  the  vote  for  the  black  man,  I  think  we  should  be 
much  more  likely  to  gain  that  by  demanding  the  vote  for 
everybody.  I  remember  that  when  I  was  a  boy  Dr.  Spurz- 
heim  came  to  this  country  to  advocate  phrenology,  but 
everybody  held  up  both  hands — “  Phrenology  !  Ycu  must 
be  running  mad  to  have  the  idea  that  phrenology  can  be 
true  !  ”  It  was  not  long  after,  that  mesmerism  came  along  ; 
and  then  the  people  said,  “  Mesmerism  !  We  can  go  phre¬ 
nology  ;  there  is  some  sense  in  that ;  but  as  for  mesmer¬ 
ism — J  ”  Yery  soop  spiritualism  made  its  appearance,  and 
then  the  same  people  began  to  say,  “Spiritualism  !  why  it 
is  nothing  but  mesmerism  ;  we  can  believe  in  that ;  but  as 
for  spiritualism — !  ”  (Laughter.)  The  way  to  get  a  man 
to  take  a  position  is  to  take  one  in  advance  of  it,  and  then 
he  will  drop  into  the  one  you  want  him  to  take.  So  that 
if,  being  crafty,  I  desire  to  catch  men  with  guile,  and  desire 


SPEECH  BY  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 


29 


them  to  adopt  suffrage  for  colored  men,  as  good  a  trap  as  I 
know  of  is  to  claim  it  for  women  also.  Bait  your  trap  with 
the  white  woman,  and  I  think  you  will  catch  the  black  man. 
(Laughter.)  I  would  not,  certainly,  have  it  understood 
that  we  are  standing  here  to  advocate  this  universal  appli¬ 
cation  of  the  principle  merely  to  secure  the  enfranchisment 
of  the  colored  citizen.  We  do  it  in  good  faith.  I  believe 
it  is  just  as  easy  to  carry  the  enfranchisement  of  all  as  the 
enfranchisment  of  any  class,  and  easier  to  carry  it  than 
carry  the  enfranchisment  of  class  after  class — class  after 
class.  (Applause.) 

I  make  this  demand  because  I  have  the  deepest  sense  of 
what  is  before  us.  We  have  entered  upon  an  era  such  as 
never  before  has  come  to  any  nation.  We  are  at  a  point  in 
the  history  of  the  world  where  we  need  a  prophet,  and  have 
none  to  describe  to  us  those  events  rising  in  the  horizon, 
thick  and  fast.  Sometimes  it  seems  to  me  that  the  Latter 
Day  glory  which  the  prophets  dimly  saw,  and  which  saints 
have  ever  since,  with  faintness  of  heart,  longed  for  and 
prayed  for  with  wavering  faith,  is  just  before  us.  I  see  the 
fountains  of  the  great  deep  broken  up.  I  think  we  are  to 
have  a  nation  born  in  a  day  among  us,  greater  in  power  of 
thought,  greater  in  power  of  conscience,  greater  therefore 
in  self-government,  greater  still  in  the  power  of  material 
development.  Such  thrift,  such  skill,  such  enterprise,  such 
power  of  self-sustentation  I  think  is  about  to  be  developed, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  advance  already  made  before  the 
nations,  as  will  surprise  even  the  most  sanguine  and  far¬ 
sighted. 

Nevertheless,  while  so  much  is  promised,  there  are  all  the 
attendant  evils.  It  is  a  serious  thing  to  bring  unwashed, 
uncombed,  untutored  men,  scarcely  redeemed  from  savagery 
to  the  ballot-box.  It  is  a  dangerous  thing  to  bring  the 
foreigner,  whose  whole  secular  education  was  under  the 
throne  of  the  tyrant,  and  put  his  hand  upon  the  helm  of 
affairs  in  this  free  nation.  It  is  a  dangerous  thing  to  bring 


30 


woman’s  duty  to  vote. 


mer  without  property,  or  the  expectation  of  it,  into  the 
legislative  halls  to  legislate  upon  property.  It  is  a  danger 
ous  thing  to  bring  woman,  unaccustomed  to  and  undrilled 
in  the  art  of  government,  suddenly  into  the  field  to  vote. 
These  are  dangerous  things  ;  I  admit  it.  But  I  think  God 
says  to  us,  “  By  that  danger  I  put  every  man  of  you  under 
the  solemn  responsibility  of  preparing  these  persons  effectu¬ 
ally  for  their  citizenship.”  Are  you  a  rich  man,  afraid  of 
your  money  ?  By  that  fear  you  are  called  to  educate  the 
men  who  you  are  afraid  will  vote  against  you.  We  are  in  a 
time  of  danger.  I  say  to  the  top  of  society,  just  as  sure  as 
you  despise  the  bottom,  you  shall  be  left  like  the  oak  tree 
that  rebelled  against  its  own  roots — better  that  it  be  struck 
with  lightning.  Take  a  man  from  the  top  of  society  or  the 
bottom,  and  if  you  will  but  give  himself  to  himself,  give 
him  his  reason,  his  moral  nature,  and  his  affections  ;  take 
him  with  all  his  passions  and  his  appetites,  and  develop 
him,  and  you  will  find  he  has  the  same  instinct  for  self-gov¬ 
ernment  that  you  have.  God  made  a  man  just  as  much  to 
govern  himself  as  a  pyramid  to  stand  on  its  own  bottom. 
Self-government  is  a  boon  intended  for  all.  This  is  shown 
in  the  very  organization  of  the  human  mind,  with  its 
counterbalances  and  checks.  It  certainly  will  be  given  to 
all ;  and  I  am  not  afraid  that  all  should  have  it,  provided 
they  are  unbound,  developed  to  more  liberty,  and  made 
more  familiar  with  themselves.  If  those  who  are  up  in  the 
privileged  seats  are  afraid  of  those  at  the  bottom,  then  turn 
to  and  become  school-teachers.  Go  to  work  and  teach 
them. 

For  my  own  part,  I  do  not  despise  the  lowly.  I  thank 
God  for  them,  as  I  thank  God  for  those  who  repose  on 
their  literary  laurels.  My  heart  warms  for  everything  God 
makes,  whether  worm  or  insect — whether  it  flies  in  the  air, 
or  swims  in  the  sea,  or  walks  upon  the  earth,  and  surely  for 
everything  that  carries  immortality  in  its  bosom.  My 
heart  warms  for  those  who  have  touched  the  summer  of 


SPEECH  BY  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 


31 


prosperity.  They  are  my  natural  fellows  ;  and  if  I  sought 
simply  congeniality,  with  them  would  I  walk.  But  when 
brought  into  that  other  state  of  benevolence,  which  pene¬ 
trated  the  bosom  of  the  Saviour,  then  they  who  are  not 
favored  are  more  the  objects  of  my  concern.  Then  do  I 
labor  more  willingly  and  more  earnestly  for  the  fallen  and 
the  oppressed,  that  I  may  lift  them  up.  Nor  do  I  know 
any  Christianity  in  this  age  of  the  world  which  does  not 
give  its  broad  shoulders  with  patient  strength,  always  lifting 
— lifting — those  that  need  some  other  than  their  own 
strength,  to  raise  them  up  to  the  place  where  God  designed 
them  to  live.  In  this  spirit  there  is  no  antagonism  between 
the  favored  classes  and  the  unfavored.  We  are  underpin¬ 
ning  and  undergirding  society.  Let  us  put  under  it  no 
political  expediency,  but  the  great  principle  of  manhood 
and  womanhood,  not  merely  cheating  ourselves  by  a  partial 
measure,  but  carrying  the  nation  forward  to  its  great  and 
illustrious  future,  in  which  it  will  enjoy  more  safety,  more 
dignity,  more  subb'me  proportions,  and  a  health  that  will 
know  no  death.  (Applause.) 


Tracts  published  at  the  office  of  the  American  Equal  Rights  Association, 
87  Park  Bow  (Room  17),  New  York  : 

Enfranchisement  of  Women,  by  Mrs.  Jotin  Stuart  Mill. 

Suffrage  for  Women,  by  John  Stuart  Mill,  M.  P. 

Freedom  for  Woman,  by  Wendell  Phillips. 

Public  Function  of  Woman,  by  Theodore  Parker. 

Woman  and  her  Wishes,  by  Cob  T.  W.  Higginson. 

Responsibilities  of  Women,  by  Mrs.  C.  I.  H.  Nichols. 

Woman’s  Influence  in  Politics,  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

Universal  Suffrage,  by  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton. 

The  Mortality  of  Nations,  by  Parker  Pillsbury. 

Should  Women  Vote  ?  Affirmative  Testimonials  of  Eminent  Persons. 


Price  Per  Single  Copy .  10  els. 

*•  Per  Hundred  Copies . . . $5  00 

u  Per  Ihousand  Copies . 3u  00 


orders  should  be  addressed  to  Susan  B.  Anthony,  Scoretary  American  E. 
It.  Association,  37  Park  Row  (Room  17),  New  York. 


Grand  Opening  of  Spring  and  Summer  Fe!3^ 

AT 

MME.  DEMOREST’S 

EMPORIUM  OF  FASHIONS,  473  Broadway,  New  York. 

Elegantly  Trimmed  Patterns  of  all  the  Latest  and  most  Reliable  Styles  of 
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Plain  or  trimmed  for  ladies’  and  children’s  dress,  either  single  or  by 
the  set ;  most  of  the  ladies’  patterns,  30  cents  each ;  children’s  15  cents  ; 
trimmed,  double  the  above  prices. 

Ladies  and  dressmakers  at  a  distance  may  rely  on  each  pattern  being 
cut  with  accuracy  and  an  exact  counterpart  of  the  shapes  direct  from 
the  acknowledged  and  best  sources  of  fashionable  elegance. 

Patterns  sent  postage  free  on  receipt  of  the  amount. 

The  plain  patterns  are  always  included  and  sent  with  the  trimmed 
patterns  without  extra  charge. 

Dressmaking  in  all  its  branches,  waists  and  jackets  cut  and 
basted,  waist  patterns  cut  to  fit  the  form  with  accuracy  and  elegance  at 
25  cents. 

Semi-Annual  Bulletins  of  Fashions,  elegantly  colored, 
$2  ;  with  ten  full-sized  Patterns,  50  cents  extra.  Postage  free. 

Combination  Suspender  and  Shoulder  Brace. — Ex¬ 
pands  the  chest  and  lungs,  and  encourages  a  graceful  position  of  the 
body.  Ladies’,  $1,  $9  per  dozen  ;  children’s  75  cents,  $6  per  dozen 

French  Corsets  on  hand,  or  made  to  measure.  The  most  per¬ 
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NEW  YORK 

MEDICAL  COLLEGE  FOR  WOMEN. 

Office,  361  West  34th  stkeet,  N.  Y.  Feb.  11, 1868. 

Mrs.  C.  S.  Lozier,  M.D.,  Dean  of  the  “  N.  Y.  Medical  College  and 
Hospital  for  Women  and  Children,”  desires  in  this  way  to  ask  assistance 
from  any  of  our  citizens,  men  or  women,  to  purchase  a  desirable  build¬ 
ing  and  groimds  in  the  upper  part  of  this  city,  offered  to  the  Board  of 
Trustees  for  $31,000.  They  have  about  $15,000  of  the  amount.  Any 
one  able  to  help  them  to  secure  this  property  either  by  donation,  or  loan 
without  interest,  will  forward  a  noble  cause.  Apply  or  write  to  Mrs. 
C.  F.  Wells,  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  No.  389  Broadway, 
firm  of  Fowler  &  Wells.  a 


MriwlttliottH 


THE  ORGAN  OF 


THE  NATIONAL  PARTY  OP  NEW  AMERICA,  based  on  In¬ 
dividual  Rig-hts  and  Responsibilities, 

Devoted  to  Principle  not  Policy,  Justice  not  Favors. 


MEN— Their  Rights  and  Nothing  More. 
WOMEN-Their  Rights  and  Nothing  Less. 

WILL  DISCUSS 


1st.  In  Politics—  Educated  Suffrage  Irrespective  of  Sex  or  Color ;  Equal 
Pay  to  Women  for  Equal  Work  ;  Eight  Hours  Labor;  Abolition  of  Standing 
Armies  and  Party  Despotisms  ;  Down  with  Politicians— Up  with  the  People. 

2d.  In  Religion— Deeper  Thought,  Broader  Ideas;  Science  not  Super¬ 
stition  ;  Personal  Purity;  Love  to  Man  as  well  as  God. 

3d.  In  Social  Life— Practical  Education,  not  Theoretical;  Fact,  not 
Fiction;  Virtue,  not  Vice ;  Cold  Water,  not  Alcoholic  Drinks  or  Medicines. 
Devoted  to  Morality  and  Reform.  THE  REVOLUTION  will  not  insert  Gross 
Personalities  and  Quack  Advertisements,  which  even  Religious  Newspapers 
introduce  to  every  family. 

4th.  The  Revolution  will  also  discuss  a  New  Commercial  and  Financial 
Policy;  America  no  longer  led  by  Europe;  GOLD,  like  our  Cotton  and  Corn,  FOR 
SALE;  Greenbacks  FOR  MONEY ;  An  American  System  of  Finance;  American  Pro¬ 
ducts  and  Labor  Free  ;  Foreign  Manufactures  Prohibited  :  Open  Doors  to  Artisans  and 
Immigrants ;  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans  for  AMERICAN  Steamships  and  Shipping 
or  American  Goods  in  American  Bottoms;  New  York  the  Financial  Centre  or  the 
World;  Wall  Street  emancipated"  from  Bank  of  England,  or  American  Cash  for  Amer¬ 
ican  Bills  ;  The  Credit  Fonder  and  Credit  Mobilier  System,  or  Capital  Mobilized  to 
Resuscitate  the  South  and  our  Mining  Interests,  and  to  People  the  Country  from  Ocean 
to  Ocean,  from  Omaha  to  San  Francisco;  More  Organized  Labor,  more  Cotton,  more 
Gold  aDd  Silver  Bui  ion  to  Sell  to  Foreigners  at  the  Highest  Prices.  Ten  Millions  of 
Naturalized  Citizens  Demand  a  Penny  Ocean  Postage,  to  Strengthen  the  Brotherhood 
of  Labor.  If  Congress  vote  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fivo  Millions  for  a  Standing 
Army  and  Freedman’s  Bureau  for  the  Blacks,  Cannot  they  spare  One  Million  for  the 
Whites  to  keep  bright  the  Chain  of  Friendship  between  them  and  the*ir  Fatherland  ? 


Editors. 


ELIZABETH  CADY  STANTON, 

PARKER  PILLSBURY, 

SUSAN  B.  ANTHONY,  Proprietor, 
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A 


